At the end of Saturday’s schedule in the English Premier League we have a great city derby between two teams based in Manchester. The home team, Manchester City has chance to definitely confirms the new champions title with victory in this match as at the moment it has even 16 points more than the 2nd-placed United. Let’s add that the Manchester derby played at the Old Trafford last autumn had ended as the Citizens victory of 2-1.
What worries all City fans ahead of the city derby is current atmosphere in the locker room as Liverpool steamrolled the City just three days ago by even 3-2 in the 1st quarter-final leg of the Champions League. It was by far the worst Manchester City match played this season and it is questionable do they have strength to annul such great backlog in the 2nd leg at the Etihad stadium, especially as the match will be played next Tuesday.
However, manager Guardiola has confidence in his players, who crush everything in front of them in the Premier League and now it is only a question will they play with the strongest team against the United and try to matemathically secure the new title, or will rest some of starters for the second match with Liverpool. That is why Guardiola will probably not risk on Saturday with still not fully ready Aguero, while this time defenders Walker, Kompany and Laporte, midfielder D. Silva and forward Sane could stay on the bench.
Probable lineups Manchester City: Ederson – Danilo, Stones, Otamendi, Delph – de Bruyne, Fernandinho, Gundogan – B. Silva, Jesus, Sterling
Unlike the City, Manchester United players will surely give their best in order to prevent their city rivals to win final points needed to verify new crown in match against them, especially as 3rd-placed Liverpool and 4th-positioned Tottenham breathe down their neck as at the moment they have two and four points fewer, respectively. In the Premier League the Red Devils have four-game winning streak, while in the same period they eliminated Brighton and reached the semi-final of the FA Cup.
On the other hand, the United was recently eliminated from the Champions League by Spanish Sevilla, after which rumours surfaced about departure of manager Mourinho from teams with most titles in England. Right because of that we believe that the Portuguese will try to do everything in order to avoid defeat in the city derby and consequently it is quite realistic to expect a fairly defensive approach from the United, where Morinho cannot count on injured defenders Jones, Blind and Roja, and reserve goalkeeper Romero.
Probable lineups Manchester United: de Gea – Valencia, Bailly, Smalling, Young – Matic, Pogba – Mata, Lingard, Sanchez – Lukaku
The Citizens have excellent opportunity to mathematically secure the new title of English champions but we should bear in mind that in just three days they have to play a very important match with Liverpool in the Champions League, which is why we have opted here for pick with fewer goals.
Pick: under 3 goals 1.54
- 54/100 @1XBet